Say Goodnight, Gracie Alternate Story
by Writing Snail
Summary: Just an alternate story for Say Goodnight, Gracie because I think we're all a little salty that Jess left.
1. Chapter 1

Say Goodnight, Gracie Alternate Story

Luke looked with determination and no small amount of anger in his eyes at the young man standing across from him steadfastly holding a defiant expression.

"You are going to make this right Jess, every cent you owe will be paid back!" Jess just rolled his eyes and headed into the storeroom.

Luke trudged wearily up the stairs towards his apartment at the end of the day in search of his nephew, his diner cleaned and locked up below.

"Hey Jess, you on here?" asked Luke as he entered the small apartment. "Jess?" a quick look around the room confirmed that it was empty as Luke rolled his eyes at the lack of response and began to prepare dinner for himself.

*knock knock knock*

The man heard the quick raps on his door to the diner at the bottom of the stairs, but chose to ignore them because, hey, he was closed, and Jess has a key for when he gets home.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Another set of knocks, this time more urgent and louder came from the downstairs door again. With a confused look on his face Luke set down the frying pan containing his dinner and started down the stairs when yet another loud set of knocks came from the door.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

"Jeez I'm coming, would you hold your horses." Luke started to yell at the door, but his words stopped short when he saw Rory standing outside, his nephew leaning heavily onto her side and looking like you could push him over with a feather.

"Rory! What are you doing here?" He asked as he opened the door and pulled Rory inside. "Is he okay? What happened?" Luke fired off questions as he reached over to relieve the girl of his nephews' heavy weight when the smell of alcohol hit his nose.

"Jess, are you drunk?" Luke asked.

The young man lazily gazed up at his uncle, and in a slurred voice responded, "maybe I am, wassit matter ta you?" and then promptly passed out into his uncles' arms.

"Woah son, hang on." Luke exclaimed as he tried to keep his nephew from falling on the floor while at the same time looking at Rory. "What happened to him?" He yelled at the young girl who had been watching the duo with a baffled expression.

"I have no idea, Luke, honest!" the girl tried to come up with an explanation about why she dropped her drunken boyfriend off at Luke's "I've been looking for Jess all day because I needed to talk to him about what happened last night, I don't know why he got so mad at me or why he's been in such a crappy mood but I didn't do anything wrong!" At this point Rory started pacing up and down the counter and talking in a frustrated tone. "I can never do anything right for Jess! He doesn't talk to me or tell me what he's going through so I never know what's wrong, he just blows up and leaves and then I feel guilty even though I know I shouldn't and when he decides to come back he pretends like nothing happened! I'm so tired of trying to fix things when I don't even know what the problem is! I don't know what to do!" Tears were streaming down the girl's face as she finished her speech while Luke stood there dumbly supporting his still passed out nephew.

"Rory, honey, I'm sorry you feel that way but there's nothing you can do to make Jess be any more communicative than he is, believe me, I've tried everything and he still sucks" Luke adjusted his grip on the boy in his arms "but right now I need to get this boy up those stairs and I need to know why he's passed out on me!"

The anger in Luke's tone pulled Rory back to reality, she quickly brushed away her tears and rushed over to support one side of Jess while Luke supported the other and they slowly carried the boy up the stairs into Luke's apartment.

Once in the small room the pair deposited Jess into his bed and the boy started snoring almost immediately, Luke heaved a mighty sigh and looked over at the girl beside him. "Come sit down and fill me in on what's going on please." He quietly asked while heading to the dining table, Rory following meekly behind.

Once they sat down Luke looked at Rory expectantly, while Rory looked intently at the wood grain on the table. When she declined to speak Luke reached out and gently grasped Rory's chin. "I know it's probably not your fault, and I know you have some issues with Jess, but right now I have to know why he's drunk and you're upset."

Rory's eyes filled with tears again but she nodded her head weakly and began to tell Luke her story. "Jess and I had a bit of an argument last night, we were upstairs in Kyle's bedroom and we got a little carried away and-" Rory paused to look up and saw Luke's eyes widening in horror. "but nothing happened! I told Jess to stop and he got mad at me, so I went downstairs and ran into Dean and that's when the real fight broke out." Rory again looked at Luke who had a mix of bewildered and horrified on his face as he responded. "Okay, I can believe all that. That still doesn't explain why Jess is laying there passed out drunk!"

Luke felt bad about yelling at the girl, but he needed an answer!

Rory sniffled and continued. "I didn't get a chance to talk to him after the cops came last night so I've been looking for him, I looked on the bridge and I found him slobbering drunk and barely able to walk and that's when I brought him here" the girl was shaking as she retold the story, whether from anger or disgust Luke wasn't sure "I don't know why he was drinking or where he even got the alcohol to begin with, honest Luke."

Luke sighed again and patted Rory's arm. "okay Rory, I believe you. Thank you for taking care of him for me." Rory smiled faintly and nodded her head. "I guess I should go home now, since you have the story." Luke nodded and stood up to let the girl out, "I'm going to get to the bottom of this Rory, maybe the two of us together can make him realize he needs to rely on other people" Luke was afraid Rory was going to start crying again after he said that, but she quickly collected herself and threw herself at Luke in a quick hug and ran out the door.

As Luke stood there alone he tried to think of how to handle this situation, he'd never been the parent before! The longer he stood there the more his thoughts drifted to his own father and what his reaction to this might be. Luke turned these thoughts over in his head as he checked on Jess one last time and went to bed.

*thunk*

The pillow bounced gracefully off Jess' head and onto the floor below as Luke's gruff voice flitted through the apartment.

"rise and shine sleeping beauty."

Jess just groaned as he sat up and threw a hand over his eyes

"what are you doing man? It's 5:30!"

"Just waking you up so you can have another productive day." Luke replied with an eyeroll

"you're sadistic." Jess threw his way as he stood up and slowly, painfully walked to the kitchen table.

"and you're hungover." was Luke's only response.

Jess could smell bacon and eggs frying on the stove and could see a fresh pot of coffee brewed on the counter, a usually welcomed breakfast that currently made him want to retch.

"Here, eat" Luke ordered as he set a plate of buttered toast and a cup of strong coffee in front of the boy "I need you sobered up and downstairs in half an hour, I'm going to start opening the diner"

Jess sat and contemplated the food sitting in front of him while trying to fight the nausea rising in his stomach, forcing himself to drink the coffee, and wondering what his uncle planned to say about his latest stunt.

After 10 minutes of choking down the cup of coffee and having a staring contest with his toast Jess decided he had to face the music eventually so, he got up, got dressed, and wearily headed downstairs.

"Glad to see you're in one piece" Luke remarked as his nephew stepped into the diner "could've used a shower though" he commented upon getting closer.

Jess gave him a classic sneer and dryly asked "can we just get this over with?"

Luke feigned surprise as he asked, "get what over with?"

Jess sighed in frustration "you know what! Yell at me about getting drunk, or fighting with Dean, or trying to have sex with Rory, or whatever the hell you want to yell at me for so I can start my day."

Luke looked intently at his nephew as he made up his mind about the consequences of Jess' latest actions, nodding his head in silent affirmation.

"I'm not going to yell at you Jess, I've yelled until I'm blue in the face and it hasn't done anything." Jess looked wary of his uncles unusually calm demeanor as he was pulled into the storeroom by his arm "Jess, this is what we're going to do. You're going to bend over that table, I'm going to take my belt off, and I'm going to give you some incentive to open your mouth and talk to the people around you instead of throwing yourself into destructive situations." Luke had put his hands on his hips and delivered his sentence with determination in his gruff voice while Jess' face melted into a horrified expression.

"You can't do that! I'm nearly eighteen years old!" Jess exclaimed after he'd recovered from his shock.

Luke almost chuckled as he responded "Oh, I can, and I will. I've let so much slide by unchecked while you've lived here and that's not fair to you. " Luke's voice rose slightly as he continued speaking "Rory and I have both tried to get you to talk and open up to us, you owe her an apology but the way!"

Jess was ready with a response that he quickly shot back at his uncle. "I've never needed to open up, I don't need anyone knowing my business except me."

"are you going to tell me why you were drunk last night?" Luke asked, "that's none of your damn business" Jess replied with a sneer.

"Yeah, didn't think so" Luke responded "maybe after we got done here you'll feel like telling me"

Jess started to spout off a snotty response but instead huffed and wrapped his arms around himself, the wind suddenly gone from his sails "I planned on apologizing to Rory, she shouldn't have had to see me like that."

Well that was the last thing Luke had expected the boy to say, he hadn't seen any kind of remorse from Jess in all the time he'd been living here. Maybe Rory really is a good influence for him.

"No, she shouldn't have. That's another reason you're getting your tail beat." Luke remarked dryly.

Jess looked up sharply and stared at his uncle, seeming to be in a battle with himself. "It doesn't look like you're changing your mind" Jess said accusingly

"Nope." was Luke's only response.

Jess made a sharp growl like noise in his throat and turned to bend over the worktable, "fine, just get it over with so I can leave."

Luke snorted and pulled off his belt, doubling it in his hands, "my pleasure" he said sarcastically.

For a minute Luke hesitated because while he'd been in Jess' position plenty of times he'd never had the roles reversed and questioned whether this was really the best solution to their problem, but the thought of his drunken nephew passed out in his arms steeled his resolve.

The next few minutes that passed were difficult for Luke and painful for Jess, Luke made sure the whipping he administered was memorable enough to sway any future misbehavior while Jess responded with grunts and a few less than manly yelps.

After a few unpleasant minutes Luke stepped back and put his hand on Jess' back. "alright Jess, you ready to talk now?"

Jess heaved a deep breath as he tried to stifle the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes, "you're going to be disappointed in me" he responded so quietly that Luke almost didn't hear him.

"why would I be disappointed in you?" Luke asked, confused.

"cause I flunked out of school." Jess responded sadly as he slowly stood up, his back still to his uncle.

"you what?" Luke grabbed Jess by the shoulder and turned him around to face him.

"I flunked out, okay? I didn't graduate and I have no future." Jess sounded so defeated when he made his confession that Luke almost felt sorry for him.

"Well, you can go back next year and graduate. Rory can tutor you." Luke responded so calmly that it surprised his nephew.

Jess had a confused look in his face, "how are you not blowing your top over this? Part of our deal was that I graduate" he responded.

Luke just nodded his head "I know it was, that's why you're going back next year whether you like it or not." a bit of his earlier anger came back "why didn't you tell me this as soon as you found out?"

"what good would it have done? I'd still be a dropout and you'd still be mad." Jess responded almost flippantly

Luke's temper flared again "if you had just opened your mouth and told me, or told Rory, we could have helped you! That's what good it would've done!" realization dawned over Luke "this is why you got mad at her, isn't it? And why you got drunk last night?"

Jess just blushed and hung his head.

"I don't believe this, if you had just talked to us we could've avoided me having to beat your ass to get a sentence out of you!" Luke was really heated now. "the next time you have a problem you are going to come tell me instead of getting into a fight or getting blackout drunk! Do you understand me?"

Jess finally looked up at that and responded with a quiet "I will Luke."

Luke was on a roll, "and you are going to apologize to Rory and explain your situation to her, she can help you."

Jess just nodded his head sadly, that's when Luke noticed the still tear brimmed eyes of his nephew; Luke sometimes forgot how young Jess actually was, and the fact that the boy had just got what was probably the only whipping of his life made him seem younger to Luke.

So, Luke did what his father would've done and awkwardly pulled the boy into a hug. Jess resisted at first, but after a moment he melted into his uncle's chest and did something he hadn't done in years.

Jess cried.

Jess cried for all the pain he'd felt in his young life; he cried for his mother that couldn't take care of herself and in turn couldn't take care of him, he cried over his father abandoning him all those years ago, he cried at being labeled 'the troubled kid' or 'the problem child' his whole life, he cried because he'd felt so damn alone all of his life until he came to this weird hick town called Stars Hollow where he finally had people that cared for him. He finally felt safe, a feeling he didn't know well. So, Jess cried until he had no more tears and Luke tried his best to comfort him.

Finally, Jess stepped away from his uncles embrace and just looked at the man. "I'll graduate next year, I promise" he told the man.

"I know" Luke said as if it was already done.

Jess awkwardly turned to leave but stopped before he walked away "I'm sorry. I'll apologize to Rory tonight." and with that Jess left the storeroom and slowly started walking up the stairs to their little apartment.

Luke sighed deeply and stepped out into the diner, unlocked the door, and headed to the kitchen.

*cling clang*

The bell over the door signaling someone's arrival made Luke groan, but Lorelei's greeting oddly filled the man with comfort and relief.

"Coffee, I need coffee."

The End.


	2. Chapter 2

Jess started up main street feeling nervous and hesitant as he headed to Rory's house not looking forward to the conversation he had coming.

As he approached Rory's front door his nervousness grew and he had to fight the urge to turn around and walk away, but the ache in his backside reminded him that his lack of communication had got him into this mess to begin with and he had to make things right or he could lose his girlfriend, so with a shaking hand he pressed the doorbell and waited.

"Jess! What are you doing here?" Rory asked as she opened the door "I thought you'd be in bed or hanging out with your head in the toilet" she said slightly accusingly.

Jess had the grace to blush as he answered her "I need to talk to you" the next part rushed out of his mouth "and explain and apologize" his head dropped to look at the ground when he said that.

Rory stepped out of the way and let him in the house motioning towards the living room "do you want a drink or anything? We have water or," she apologetically shrugged "water, you know how it is here"

Jess nervously paced in the small space in front of the couch and shook his head "no, thanks. I just want to talk to you."

Rory sat on the couch and looked at him expectantly.

Jess took a deep breath, "I flunked out of school." he heard a gasp come from Rory and quickly assured her "I've already told Luke, I'm going back next year and I'm going to graduate."

"when did this happen?" she asked even though she already had a pretty good idea.

"Before Kyle's party" he sat on the couch beside Rory with a slight wince and looked her in the eyes "I got mad that night because I was frustrated about school, you did nothing wrong and I shouldn't have blown up at you. I'm sorry." Jess had never made a more sincere apology in his entire life, but then again Jess had never liked anyone as much as he liked Rory in his entire life.

" Why didn't you just tell me? I could've helped you." Rory asked sadly.

Jess sighed "Luke said the same thing."

"You're avoiding the question, why didn't you tell me?" Rory pressed.

"Rory, I'm not good at asking for help" he said even though it sounded like a lame excuse, even to himself "but I'll try to do better" he promised.

"Fine, I forgive you, but I'm still mad at you" Rory replied while crossing her arms.

Jess decided he might have to deal with some wounded pride if it meant his girlfriend wouldn't be mad at him anymore, "if it makes you feel any better... " Jess hesitated but decided to bite the bullet "Luke beat my ass with a belt for last night."

Rory looked up shocked by the admission "really? That does make me feel a little better" she almost giggled as she responded and then turned serious again "so that's why you got drunk last night, isn't it?" she asked.

Jess nodded "yeah, I hooked up with Kyle's cousin Rick and had him buy me some booze."

Rory was putting the pieces together in her head and started to feel bad for Jess, the boy truly couldn't comprehend that he was cared for. "I need you to promise me that you'll ask for help the next time you have a problem" she said seriously.

Jess couldn't bring himself to make that promise but instead replied "I'll try to do better" and Rory decided that was the best she was going to get, so instead of responding she just leaned in for a kiss that showed Jess he was completely forgiven.

The End.


End file.
